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THE  KIND  OF  DEMOCRACY 
THE  NEGRO  RACE  EXPECTS 


BY 

WILLIAM   PICKENS 
BALTIMORE,  MD. 


Decoration  Day,  May  30,  1918 


Baltimore,  Md. 

Herald  Printing  Company 

11 27  Druid  Hill  Ave. 


ADDRESS 


Democracy  is  the  most  used  term  in  the  world  today.  But 
some  of  its  uses  are  abuses.  Everybody  says  "Democracy!"  But 
everybody  has  his  own  definition.  By  the  extraordinary  weight  of 
the  presidency  of  the  United  States  many  undemocratic  people 
have  had  this  word  forced  upon  their  lips  but  have  net  yet  had 
the  right  ideal  forced  upon  their  hearts.  I  have  heard  of  one  woman 
who  wondered  with  alarm  whether  "democracy"  would  mean  that 
colored  women  would  have  the  right  to  take  any  vacant  seat  or 
space  on  a  street  car,  even  if  they  had  paid  for  it.  That  such  a  ques 
tion  should  be  asked,  shows  how  many  different  meanings  men  may 
attach  to  the  one  word  DEMOCRACY.  This  woman  doubtless  be 
lieves  in  a  democracy  of  me-and-my-kind,  which  is  no  democracy. 
The  most  autocratie  and  the  worst  caste  systems  could  call  them 
selves  democratic  by  that  definition.  Even  the  Prussian  junker 
believes  in  that  type  of  democracy:  he  has  no  doubt  that  he  and 
the  other  junkers  should  be  free  and  equal  in  rights  and  privileges. 

Many  have  accepted  the  word  DEMOCRACY  merely  as  the 
current  password  to  respectability  in  political  thinking.  The  spirit 
of  the  times  is  demanding  democracy;  it  is  the  tune  of  the  age; it 
is  the  song  to  sing.  But  some  are  like  that  man  who  belonged  to 
one  of  our  greater  political  parties:  after  hearing  convincing  argu 
ments  by  the  stump-speaker  of  the  opposite  party,  he  exclaimed: 
"Wa-al,  that  fellow  has  convinced  my  judgment,  but  I'll  be  d — d  if 
he  can  CHANGE  MY  VOTE!" 

It  is  in  order,  therefore,  for  the  Negro  to  state  clearly  what  he 
means  by  democracy  and  what  he  is  fighting  for. 

FIRST.  Democracy  in  Education.  This  is  fundamental.  No 
other  democracy  is  practicable  unless  all  of  the  people  have  equal 
right  and  opportunity  to  develop  according  to  their  individual  en- 


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dowments.  There  can  be  no  real  democracy  between  two  natural 
groups,  if  one  represents  the  extreme  of  ignorance  and  the  other 
the  best  intelligence.  The  common  public  school  and  the  state 
university  should  be  the  foundation  stones  of  democracy.  If  men 
are  artificially  differentiated  at  the  beginning,  if  we  try  to  educate 
a  "working  class"  and  a  "ruling  class,"  forcing  different  race  groups 
into  different  lines  without  regard  to  individual  fitness,  how  can  we 
ever  hope  for  democracy  in  the  other  relations  of  these  groups? 
Individuals  will  differ,  but  in  democracy  of  education  peoples  liv 
ing  on  the  same  soil  should  not  be  widely  diverged  in  their  training 
on  mere  racial  lines.  This  would  be  illogical,  since  they  are  to  be 
measured  by  the  same  standards  of  life.  Of  course,  a  group  that  is 
to  live  in  Florida  should  be  differently  trained  from  a  group  that  is 
to  live  in  Alaska;  but  that  is  geography  and  general  environment, 
and  not  color  or  caste. — The  Negro  believes  in  democracy  of  educa 
tion  as  first  and  fundamental:  that  the  distinction  should  be  made 
between  individual  talents  and  not  between  colors  and  castes. 

SECOND.  Democracy  in  Industry.  The  right  to  work  in  any 
line  lor  which  the  individual  is  best  prepared,  and  to  be  paid  the 
standard  wage.  This  is  also  fundamental.  In  the  last  analysis  there 
could  be  very  little  democracy  between  multi-millionaires  and  the 
abject  poor.  There  must  be  a  more  just  and  fair  distribution  of 
wealth  in  a  democracy.  And  certainly  this  is  not  possible  unless 
men  work  at  the  occupations  for  which  they  are  endowed  and  best 
prepared.  There  should  be  no  "colored"  wages  and  no  "white" 
wages;  no  "man's"  wage  and  no  "woman's"  wage.  Wages  should 
be  paid  for  the  work  done,  measured  as  much  as  possible  by  its 
productiveness.  No  door  of  opportunity  should  be  closed  to  a  man 
on  any  other  ground  than  that  of  his  individual  unfitness.  The 
cruelest  and  most  undemocratic  thing  in  the  world  is  to  require  of 
the  individual  man  that  his  whole  race  be  fit  before  he  can  be  re 
garded  as  fit  for  a  certain  privilege  or  responsibility.  That  rule, 
strictly  applied,  would  exclude  any  man  of  any  race  from  any  posi 
tion.  For  every  man  to  serve  where  he  is  most  able  to  serve  is 
'  public  economy  and  is  to  the  best  interest  of  th.e  state.  This  lament 
able  war  that  was  forced  upon  us  should  make  that  plain  t©  the 
dullest  of  us.  Suppose  that,  whenK  this  war  broke  out,  our  whole 
country  had  been  like  Mississippi  (and  I  refer  to  geography  unin- 


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vidiously), — suppose  our  whole  country  had  been  like  Mississippi, 
where  a  caste  system  was  holding  the  majority  of  the  population  in 
the  triple  chains  of  ignorance,  semi-serfdom  and  poverty.  Our 
nation  would  be  now  either  the  unwilling  prey  or  the  golden  goose 
for  the  Prussian.  The  long-headed  thing  for  any  state  is  to  let 
every  man  do  his  best  all  of  the  time.  But  some  people  are  so 
short-sighted  that  they  only  see  what  is  thrust  against  their  noses. 
The  Negro  asks  American  labor  in  the  name  of  democracy  to  get 
rid  of  its  color  caste  and  industrial  junkerism. 

THIRD.  Democracy  in  State.  A  political  democracy  in  which 
all  are  equal  before  the  laws;  where  there  is  one  standard  of  justice, 
written  and  unwritten;  where  all  men  and  women  may  be  citizens 
by  the  same  qualifications,  agreed  upon  and  specified.  We  believe 
in  this  as  much  for  South  Africa  as  for  South  Carolina,  and  we  hope 
that  our  American  nation  will  not  agree  with  any  government,  ally 
or  enemy,  that  is  willing  to  make  a  peace  that  will  bind  the  African 
Negro  to  political  slavery  and  exploitation. 

Many  other  evils  grow  put  of  political  inequality.  Discrimi 
nating  laws  are  the  mother  of  the  mob  spirit.  The  political  philos 
opher  in  Washington,  after  publishing  his  opinion  that  a  Negro  by 
the  fault  of  being  a  Negro  is  unfit  to  be  a  member  of  Congress,  can 
not  expect  an  ignorant  white  man  in  Tennessee  to  believe  that  the 
same  Negro  is,  nevertheless,  fit  to  have  a  fair  and  impartial  trial  in 
a  Tennessee  court.  Ignorance  is  too  logical  for  that.  I  disagree 
with  the  premises  but  I  agree  with  the  reasoning  of  the  Tennessee- 
an:  that  if  being  a  Negro  unfits  a  man  for  holding  a  government 
office  for  which  he  is  otherwise  fit,  it  unfits  the  same  man  for  claim 
ing  a  "white  man's"  chance  in  the  courts.  The  first  move  therefore 
against  mob  violence  and  injustice  in  the  petty  courts  is  to  wipe 
out  discriminating  laws  and  practices  in  the  higher  circles  of  gov 
ernment.  The  ignorant  man  in  Tennessee  will  not  rise  in  ideal 
above  the  intelligent  man  in  Washington. 

FOURTH.  Democracy  without  Sex-preferment.  The  Negro 
cannot  consistently  oppose  color  discrimination  and  support  sex 
discrimination  in  democratic  government.  This  happened  to  be 
the  opinion  also  of  the  First  Man  of  the  Negro  race  in  America, — 
Frederick  Douglass.  The  handicap  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
a  presumption  in  the  mind  of  the  physically  dominant  element  of 


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the  universal  inferiority  of  the  weaker  or  subject  element.  It  is  so 
easy  to  prove  that  the  man  who  is  down  and  under,  deserves  to  be 
down  and  under.  In  the  first  place,  he  is  down  there,  isn't  he?  And 
that  is  three  fourths  of  the  argument  to  the  ordinary  mind;  for 
the  ordinary  mind  does  not  seek  ultimate  causes.  The  argument 
against  the  participation  of  colored  men  and  of  women  in  self-govern 
ment  is  practically  one  argument.  Somebody  spoke  to  the  Creator 
about  both  of  these  classes  and  learned  that  they  were  "created" 
for  inferior  roles.  Enfranchisement  would  spoil  a  good  field-hand, — 
or  a  good  cook.  Black  men  were  once  ignorant, — women  were  once 
ignorant.  Negroes  had  no  political  experience, — women  had  no 
such  experience.  The  argument  forgets  that  people  do  not  get  ex 
perience  on  the  outside.  But  the  American  Negro  expects  a  de 
mocracy  that  will  accord  the  right  to  vote  to  a  sensible  industrious 
woman  rather  than  to  a  male  tramp. 

FIFTH.  Democracy  in  Church.  The  preachings  and  the  prac 
tices  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  are  perhaps  the  greatest  influence  in  the 
production  of  modern  democratic  ideas.  The  Christian  church  is. 
therefore,  no  place  for  the  caste  spirit  or  for  snobs.  And  the  col 
ored  races  the  world  over  will  have  even  more  doubt  in  the  future 
than  they  have  had  in  the  past  of  the  real  Christianity  of  any  church 
which  holds  out  to  them  the  prospect  of  being  united  in  heaven 
after  being  separated  on  earth. 

FINALLY.  The  great  colored  races  will  in  the  future  not  be 
kinder  to  a  sham  democracy  than  to  a  "scrap-of-paper"  autocracy. 
The  private  home,  private  right  and  private  opinion  must  remain 
inviolate;  but  the  commonwealth,  the  public  places  and  public  prop 
erty,  must  not  be  appropriated  to  the  better  use  of  any  group  by 
"Jim-Crowing"  and  segregating  any  other  group.  By  the  endow 
ments  of  God  and  nature  there  are  individual  "spheres";  but  there 
are  no  such  widely  different  racial  "spheres".  Jesus'  estimate  of 
the  individual  soul  is  the  taproot  of  democracy,  and  any  system 
which  discourages  the  men  of  any  race  from  individual  achievement, 
is  no  democracy.  To  fix  the  status  of  a  human  soul  on  earth  accord 
ing  to  the  physical  group  in  which  it  was  born,  is  the  gang  spirit  of 
the  savage  which  protects  its  own  members  and  outlaws  all  others. 

For  real  democracy  the  American  Negro  will  live  and  die.  His 
loyalty  is  always  above  suspicion,  but  his  extraordinary  spirit  in  the 


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present  war  is  born  of  his  faith  that  on  the  side  of  his  country  and  her 
allies  is  the  best  hope  for  such  democracy.  And  he  welcomes,  too, 
the  opportunity  to  lift  the  "Negro  question"  out  of  the  narrow 
confines  of  the  Southern  United  States  and  make  it  a  world  ques 
tion.  Like  many  other  questions  our  domestic  race  question,  in 
stead  of  being  settled  by  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina,  will  now 
seek  its  settlement  largely  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe. 

WM  PICKENS, 

Morgan  College. 
Baltimore,  Md.,  May  30,  1918. 


